Raigam ready to recognise tele - talents

By Susitha R. Fernando

The third successful Raigam Tele Award Festival to recognise talents in television will be held at 6.30 pm on May 18 at the BMICH.

Best actor and actress in 2006 Raigam Awards

Begun in 2004, the festival aims at felicitating and awarding winning artistes in the local teledrama scene. Dedicated to honour artistes the Raigam Company has initiated a separate unit namely 'Raigam Tele Award Secretariat'. The duties of the unit include collecting data on the teledramas telecast on various TV channels, collecting scripts that were selected for the competition, selecting judges and media coordination. This year's panel of judges will be headed by Senior Lecturer of Kelaniya University, Dr. Patrick Ratnayake.

The awards night was conceptualised and organised by Upali Ariyasiri and Channa-Upuli Dancing Troupe will handle the choreography while a number of veteran artistes will present their performance. The event will later be telecast on TV.

The felicitation will include the dramas telecast between January 1 and December 2006. Thirty awards will be given to the best artistes along with cash prizes. In addition to the main awards, on the selection of the jury, merit awards and special awards will be given to special talents in the teledrama field and institutions which have contributed for the upliftment of the art.

The Most Popular Actor and Actress will be selected from the SMS collected till May 15 midnight and the public are requested to SMS on 0773337337. "The main aim of Raigam Tele Award is to widen the artistic taste of the millions of TV audience, identify the talents of our artistes and to create a better society through the medium of art," the Chairman of Kingdom of Raigam said.